West African leaders have agreed to work together to wage "total war" on Boko Haram, saying the Nigerian Islamist group had become a regional Al Qaeda that threatened them all.

Nigeria, its neighbours - Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Benin - and Western officials met in Paris to flesh out a plan enabling them for the first time to share intelligence, coordinate action and monitor borders.

It comes as a suspected Boko Haram attack was carried out on a Chinese work site in northern Cameroon, killing at least one Cameroonian soldier with 10 others feared kidnapped.

Nigeria, currently a member of the 15-country council, will have to make the request first before possible sanctions can be examined.

Until now, Abuja has been reticent about seeking help from the United Nations in its struggle with Boko Haram.

"The main outcome is that the region is now aware of a problem that for a long time was considered an internal Nigerian problem," the source said.

"Abuja has accepted to go beyond its borders."

It comes as Mr Jonathan defended his decision to cancel a visit to the town of Chibok, where the schoolgirls had been kidnapped.

His last-minute cancellation, ostensibly for security reasons, has been widely criticised.

"What is of interest now is to locate the girls. The girls are not in Chibok," Mr Jonathan said.

He added that he "will visit Chibok", but did not give a date.

Mr Jonathan also dismissed criticism that the Nigerian response had been slow, saying the terror "only started in 2009 and we didn't have the architecture to deal with that".

"As we progress you will see that the Nigerian military will cope. Definitely we will overcome it," he said.

Fears Boko Haram could spread into Central African Republic

With 6,000 French troops operating in either Mali to the north-west or the Central African Republic to the east, Paris has an interest in preventing a deterioration in Nigeria's security.

Like its Western allies, Paris has ruled out any military operation, saying it was primarily for Nigeria to take the lead, although Mr Hollande said Rafale fighter jets based in the Chadian capital N'Djamena - 60 kilometres from the Nigerian border - would be used for reconnaissance missions.

Paris fears Boko Haram could spread north into the Sahel and beyond Cameroon into the Central African Republic.

The group has killed more than 3,000 people in its war to establish an Islamic state in mostly Muslim north-east Nigeria.

Cameroon president Paul Biya said he would send more means and troops to the north, but that Boko Haram had been picking soft targets and outnumbering his troops.

Nigeria has complained the far north of Cameroon is being used by Boko Haram militants to shelter from a Nigerian military offensive and to transport weapons, and has urged Cameroon to tighten border security.

Mr Jonathan said there was a "misconception" in the relation between the two countries over crossing each other's borders and that this would now be ironed out.